Does astrology really work

Nicole West - Feb 12, 2018

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Some people firmly believe that the position of the sun, moon, and stars can influence what is going on here on earth, while other people think that it is all nonsense. A lot of us enjoy checking out our star signs in magazines without taking any of it too seriously, but does astrology really work?

Astrology still remains

Among many superstitions and claims of “magic,” astrology is one thing that has always remained in culture and is as popular now as it was many years ago when stars were first being studied. As early as the 4th century B.C, Babylonian astrology was introduced to the Greeks, and thanks to Plato and Aristotle, among others, it became highly regarded as science. In fact, for around 2000 years, astrology and astronomy were seen as the same science.

Astrology and weather

When astrology was a new phenomenon, one of its main uses was to find meaningful connections between the weather conditions and the planetary positions in order to decide on the best dates for planting and harvesting. Although we now use meteorology to determine the weather, it is not entirely accurate, and there may be merit in combining this with astrology for more accurate readings and predictions.

Astrology and love

One aspect of astrology and star signs is the belief that some people are more compatible with others, due to their birth charts. Carl Jung, the founder of analytical psychology, wanted to test out this theory and so studied the birth charts of over 400 married couples. His results confirmed that, as astrologers claimed, there was a pattern between compatibility and star sign, and the odds of this being pure coincidence is over 62 million to one.

Astrology and fertility

In the 1950s, Czech physician Dr. Eugen Jonas found that fertility is affected by the patterns in the mother’s birth chart relating to where the sun and moon are in the sky. This finding allowed women to get pregnant (or avoid getting pregnant) using only astrology. Even now, over 60 years later, people still swear by this method.

Astrology and red hair(?!)

This one is pretty wild! Astrologers claim that your birth chart can have an effect on how you look, and this has been backed up by a study by Judith Hill. Hill wanted to see whether Mars, the Red Planet, had any correlation with people who were born redheads. Amazingly, around 30% of redheads were born with Mars near the Ascendant. As an extra interesting fact, Mars is said to rule surgery in astrology and science has also established that generally speaking, redheads require more anesthesia during surgery than people with other hair colors.

So as you can see, astrology is about more than vague messages of luck or love in a magazine. It is a science that uses the planets in order to predict weather, compatibility, fertility and much more. Of course, those who believe in the power of astrology can find many examples of it working, whereas skeptics are able to disprove all of the theories, and so, like a lot of things, it is down to personal beliefs.